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I wonder if WLIW still does their pledge drives "in house" -- that is I noticed a recent trend of local PBS stations now farming out their pledge drives. So they are actually prerecorded at a generic PBS studio using a toll-free number for viewers to call in, but the on-air 'talent' during the pledges won't mention any call letters or station number... so that it can be used in multiple markets.

I haven't caught any recent pledge drives on WLIW recently so I am not sure what they are doing. If they do indeed still do it locally, we can organize a pledge drive (if they would have us back that is - LOL).

For us non-US types can you explain what (in this context) a pledge drive is - I've got a fairly good idea - viewers pledge so much money so the station can buy the rights to air the show - but it would be nice to have it clarified.

At least this is a chance for those that may not have cable and/or satellite access to catch the newer series, but it is also a chance for those fans that don't have the DVDs to see the stories without commercial interruptions as well. Hopefully uncut to boot.

At least this is a chance for those that may not have cable and/or satellite access to catch the newer series, but it is also a chance for those fans that don't have the DVDs to see the stories without commercial interruptions as well. Hopefully uncut to boot.

Cheers,
Louis

Uncut, hopefully but it's Pledge Drive time. That means for a 45 min program they will probably break twice. Well at least it's more exposure.

Recently received an e-mail from IHOD (Ingergalactic House of Daleks) out of the Dallas area that KERA will be bringing back Doctor Who. No idea yet as to clasic or new but on Mar. 3rd there will be Who in the DFW area again, Horray.

This is actually very good news. For those perhaps without any access to cable and/or satellite television in the US will now have a chance to see the Christopher Eccleston stories, and I am sure in time, the David Tennant ones as well.

I have already contacted WLIW to see if they still perform pledge drives in-house at their studio and whether the Gallifreyan Embassy can volunteer once again during their Doctor Who pledge drives as we did "back in the day."

What's odd at this point is that I can not find any other episodes on their schedule other than "Rose" on March 7th at 10pm. Their online schedule on their website goes up until the end of March, yet not a single other Doctor Who episode is listed at this time. Perhaps this showing on the 7th is a "preview" they are showing before the regular programming begins? Just a guess... I bet it is during their pledge drive as well.

UPDATE:
I have been in touch with WLIW. The good news is that they are inviting us, The Gallifreyan Embassy back to their studios to assist in their pledge drive. I received their pledge drive schedule for March, and the bad news is that for some odd reason there are no scheduled pledge drive breaks on March 6th or 7th. It is the 7th that we wanted as it is when Doctor Who will be transmitted (10pm - episode "Rose"). This is still the only story scheduled for March, so we are assuming they are "previewing" this episode during their pledge drive in March and most likely the series will appear on their regular schedule next month or sometime soon.

Now, they did not give me any reason or clue on why there were no scheduled pledge breaks in place for March 7th at this time. Either they are not doing any in-studio pledge breaks on March 6th and 7th, that is not say they won't be pledge breaks those days, but they may be all pre-recorded for some reason. Or perhaps they are already filled with other volunteers, and thus they took those dates off the schedule that they are offering to potential volunteers... or perhaps they are not doing pledge breaks those days (this seems very unlikely, especially since it appears that the Doctor Who episode is a special "one-off" for the month of March. Something typically done for pledge drives).

Hopefully, we will be back in the studio as we had been so often and so long ago 'back in the day' -- but really prefer to do it during Doctor Who and other British science fiction programming (seems like they finished their run of Hyperspace on WLIW as well).

Hey, I am watching WLIW right now... and there are pledge breaks during tonight's Doctor Who episode. I don't know why they didn't offer tonight to us to volunteer, unless this was pre-booked for some reason, or it was pre-recorded (more likely).